G.S.T. celebrates birthday with $186M intake

It may seem odd that a government department that took in one hundred and eighty-six million dollars of consumer’s money in the last twelve months might try to keep that information on the down low, but leave it to our good friends at the General Sales Tax office to actually make us happy to pay up. The tax in question, of course, is the G.S.T., which celebrated its first anniversary on July first. Assistant Commissioner Cynthia Castillo says that consumers and business people alike need to know the rules.

Cynthia Castillo, Asst. Commissioner, G.S.T.
“Business owners especially those registered for G.S.T. need to know their obligations under the tax. For example to file a monthly return, to keep proper books and records and for consumers we need to know when it is that we pay the tax. For example we’ve been advocating that consumers must first look for a G.S.T. certificate, it’s green in colour. If you do not see a G.S.T. certificate displayed permanently at a business place it is safe to assume that they are not registered for G.S.T. therefore do not pay the G.S.T.”

Stewart Krohn
“Are most businesses signed up for G.S.T. and are those that are signed up are they paying properly and on time?’

Cynthia Castillo
“On G.S.T. implementation we had projected a registration base of two thousand and today we are almost two thousand six hundred. Yes, we have been out there and we have been registering those who we think should register; those who we think would meet the $75,000 threshold.”

Of the total one hundred and eighty-six million dollars G.S.T. collected during the first year, one hundred and one million was paid through the Customs Department on imports while eighty-five million was generated domestically.